Yes sir, we believe it came out of Ft. Ripley in Minesota where the Natl. Guard had been shooting and shelling it for years. It Ended up in Utah with Karl Smith, his Jumbo Sherman is just about completely restored now. According to Don Moriarty who was instrumental in the restoration of Cobra King, it is number 73 of 254, 250 of which fought in the ETO. Far as we can tell there are seven left.
And since Rob put his two cents in I have to credit him with the idea to bolt the tank together, even with non-jumbo differential, and stock T26 mantlet, paint her up and let it at least look like a tank while we get around to eventual restoration. One thing to sit under a tarp or in pieces, but at least now visitors can see it in one piece and marvel at some of the incredible damage inflicted while on the range.
As for the gun, I do have a nice uncut 75mm barrel but figure that should stay inside and my useless apendage of a brother refuses to let me loose on his CNC lathe to hog out a replica barrel so we are trying something new. I tried the pipe but I need the taper in the barrel so we are bump forming two halves of the tapered barrel on the brake...will let you know how it turns out!
Last edited by jdmcm; 26-05-16 at 06:17.
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